News 2017

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December 2017 Tsipe visited Stockholm University

[img_assist|nid=572|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=150|height=212]Tsipe visited the Department of Physical Geography of Stockholm University to participate in the evaluation committee of Jessica Lindgren’s PhD thesis and to discuss plans for collaboration. The thesis „Small remnant habitats: Important structures in fragmented landscapes” focused on analyzing the role of small-area natural and semi-natural elements for preserving biodiversity and related ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes.

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December 2017 European ecological societies had a joint annual meeting in Belgium

[img_assist|nid=570|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=195]Aveliina, Madli, Riin and Tsipe participated in the joint annual meeting of British Ecological Society and other larger European ecological societies. The event, where also the members of our working group presented their newest research findings, took place in Ghent, Belgium, in 11-14 December. Madli presented a poster ’An individual-based computer simulation can emulate realistic plant diversity patterns in oceanic archipelagos’. Tsipe gave an overview of her and Aveliina’s recent review article on restoration recommendations in a talk ’The role of landscape-scale dispersal in restoring plant species and genetic diversity’. Riin spoke about the importance of regional and local effects on grasslands biodiversity patterns.

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December 2017 Meelis is a co-author in a new global paper published in Nature Ecology and Evolution

[img_assist|nid=569|title=Fig. 1 Local species richness and community dissimilarity interact to affect average multifunctionality|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=175]Meelis is a member of global research cooperative Nutrient Network (NutNet). The goal of this network is to collect data from a broad range of grassland sites in a consistent manner to allow direct comparisons of environment-productivity-diversity relationships among systems around the world. In the beginning of December new global paper, based on the data collected through this international network, was published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Hautier et al. tested whether the variation in communities observed across landscapes (β-diversity) and the interplay between diversity at local and landscape scales also contributes to the functioning of real-world ecosystems such as natural and semi-natural grasslands. It is known from small scale experiments that low diversity communities and monocultures often function more poorly than more diverse alternatives that contain more species. But small scale experiments do not exactly replicate real world conditions. Their findings reveal for the first time that plant diversity, at both local and landscape scales, contributes to the maintenance of multiple ecosystem services provided by grasslands. Therefore, for preserving ecosystem functioning, it is important to conserve both diverse mixtures of species at single locations and to preserve a diverse variety of species across landscapes.

See also a press release of Utrecht University

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December 2017 Review paper about the importance of landscape-scale factors in habitat restoration

[img_assist|nid=571|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=195]Tsipe and Aveliina published a review article in Restoration Ecology about the importance of considering landscape-scale factors in planning successful restoration measures. They suggest that the creation of a network of habitats, where plant communities are related via landscape-scale seed dispersal and pollen flow, is an important prerequisite for successful restoration. Spatial connectivity as well as functional connectivity between habitats supported by seed and pollen vectors (e.g. rotational sheep grazing and pollinating insects) helps species to arrive at target sites as well as increases the long-term stability of communities. The authors also stress that in an era of ongoing global change, it is vital to aim at increasing genetic diversity of populations constituting the restored communities in addition to targeting the recovery of characteristic species composition and richness. Genetic diversity will increase the adaptive potential of restored populations to react to climate change.

Aavik, T. & Helm, A. (2018). Restoration of plant species and genetic diversity depends on landscape-scale dispersal. Restoration Ecology, doi: 10.1111/rec.12634.

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December 2017 Liis gave a speech

[img_assist|nid=568|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=173]1st of December 2017 University of Tartu celebrated its 98th birthday. On this day also the honorary doctorates and doctorates were conferred. Liis also received her diploma and gave a short speech on the behalf of all new doctors. The take home message of her speech was that young scientists have the knowledge to solve any problems in the society and world, but to be more efficient cooperation between different disciplines is essential. Her speech can be viewed in UTTV.

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November 2017 World scientists are warning humankind

[img_assist|nid=567|title=Alarming trends over time for environmental issues|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=258]Meelis, Aveliina and Riin together with other 15,000+ scientists from 184 countries signed the global environmental article „World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice“, which constate that current and future human health and wellbeing are at serious risk from climate change, deforestation, loss of access to freshwater, species extinctions, and human population growth.

Scientists, media influencers, and lay citizens must insist that their governments take immediate action as a moral imperative to current and future generations of human and other life. It is also time to re-examine and change our individual behaviors!

Read, hear and watch news also in Estonian media:
article in Novaator
interview with Meelis in Postimees
Aveliina in radio broadcast Uudis+
Aveliina in national television (starting from 38 min)

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November 2017 New paper about estimating the rarity of any ecological unit

[img_assist|nid=565|title=Basic steps to build TPDs and estimations of functional distinctiveness at various scales|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=180] Carlos and Meelis, together with colleagues from Czech Republic and Japan published a response letter to a paper by Violle and colleagues in TREE. In their paper, Violle et al. proposed a series of methods to estimate the rarity of species at the local and regional scale, and a classification of the rarity of species based on these indices. Carlos, Meelis, and colleagues suggested in their response that rarity needs not to be estimated differently depending on the considered scale, and most importantly, that the concept of rarity is not necessarily restricted to species, but it can be applied to any organizational level, such as communities or landscapes within broader contexts. This can be done by applying probabilistic estimations of the functional structure of ecological units (Trait Probability Density; TPD), which can be estimated at any spatial scale, from individual organisms to the whole world.

In this context, Carlos just submitted the TPD package to CRAN. TPD is a freely available package including tools to calculate TPD functions at any scale (e.g. populations, species, communities), as well as to partition functional diversity across scales, and includes an implementation of the rarity concept presented in the TREE paper. These indices constitute a unified framework that incorporates the underlying probabilistic nature of trait distributions into uni- or multidimensional functional trait-based studies.

Carmona, C.P., de Bello, F., Sasaki, T., Uchida, K. & Pärtel, M. (2017). Towards a common toolbox for rarity: a response to Violle et al. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 32: 889-891.

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November 2017 Workgroup autumn seminar

[img_assist|nid=564|title=|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=260|height=195]Our workgroup autumn seminar was held on 16-17th of November in Räpina. This time the seminar was focused on the impact of anthropogenic activities on biodiversity. In addition to presentations by our workgroup members, we had three guest presenters - Liina Remm (researcher in conservation biology), Evelyn Uuemaa (senior research fellow in geoinformatics) and Argo Ronk (our previous PhD student, who is now postdoc in Brenda Casper´s lab at University of Pennsylvania, USA). After exciting presentations we continued discussions at a dinner table and sauna. Next morning, before coming back to Tartu, we visited one of the most unique industrial architecture in Europe, the Räpina paper mill, which has been active since 1734.

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November 2017 This year’s last fieldwork on alvar grasslands

[img_assist|nid=566|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=195]From 5-10th of November Ignacio, Elisabeth and Liis carried out field work measuring forest biomass and wood production of afforested alvar grasslands in Saaremaa, Hiiumaa, Muhu and on the mainland of Western Estonia. While in summer the grasslands are dry and easily passable, then on wetter seasons big rubber boots are essential to reach to the site.

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November 2017 Aveliina and Tsipe participated in a seminar organised by Estonian Landscape Architects’ Union

[img_assist|nid=560|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=195]Aveliina and Tsipe gave talks at a seminar „Low impact design – landscape architecture in combination with nature“, which was organised by Estonian Landscape Architects’ Union. The seminar focused on using wild plants in landscape design and gardening. Special attention was given to the paradigmatic change in landscape and gardening architecture towards approaches, which enable to support biodiversity and are based on using local plant material for ‘greening’ public spaces.

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October 2017 International environmental conference in Tallinn

[img_assist|nid=561|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=146]Aveliina, Kersti and Liis participated in the international conference “Nature-based Solutions: From Innovation to Common-use”, organized by the Ministry of the Environment of Estonia and the University of Tallinn in relation to the Presidency of the Estonian Republic of the Council of the European Union. The conference hosted leading scientists, politicians and entrepreneurs from around the world who shared their experience on how nature-based innovation and eco-innovative technologies can be implemented in many areas of life. Aveliina had an opportunity to introduce her “Everyman’s nature conservation” idea.

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October 2017 Science meets reality! 20 people, one table, one idea: Tartu´s urban nature

[img_assist|nid=563|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=174]Aveliina together with other scientists, urban-planners, landscape architects and Tartu citizens discussed how to make Tartu´s nature more diverse, which improves human well-being, and provides habitats for Estonian native flora and fauna. A win-win situation, which should finally help to make Tartu European Cultural Capital 2024.

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October 2017 Aveliina believes that science can save the world

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October 2017 Norbertas went to Soil Biodiversity conference in China

[img_assist|nid=556|title=Great Wall of China|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=150|height=200]Norbertas participated at the Second Soil Biodiversity conference in Nanjing, China, 15-19th of October. He gave a talk about his findings on biodiversity-productivity relationships in old-growth boreo-nemoral forests. And of course, heard many interesting talks (and posters) covering the newest findings and challenges in the soil biodiversity research. There were plenty of opportunities for discussions with the colleagues from around the world. Finally, he had a chance to participate in the post-conference tour to Beijing, where he visited Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Great Wall of China and other famous objects.

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October 2017 Meelis visited University of South Bohemia

[img_assist|nid=555|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=173]On the 16-18th of October, Meelis visited University of South Bohemia, department of botany and gave a talk titled ‘Dark diversity: concept, methods and applications’. In addition, he developed collaboration with old friends and created new contacts.

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October 2017 Aveliina represented "LIFE to alvars" project in Brussels

[img_assist|nid=562|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=195]Aveliina participated in the LIFE Platform Meeting: "Reintroduction of species: a tool for the restoration of habitats" in Brussels, Botanic Garden Meise, 11-12 October. Meeting brought together representatives of relevant LIFE projects and other experts, practitioners and policy-makers to exchange know-how and collate best practice in the ecological restoration of habitats degraded by human activities. Aveliina represented Estonian LIFE+ Nature programme project "LIFE to Alvars" and introduced species reintroduction actions that have been carried out in the alvar grassland restoration project.

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October 2017 Aveliina gave a seminar in Estonian Literary museum

[img_assist|nid=557|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=171]On October 10th, Estonian Literary museum invited Aveliina Helm to give a seminar about the importance of indigenous and local knowledge in biodiversity conservation and ecology. She introduced studies connecting historical human activities and community ecology, and discussed the applicability of indigenous and local knowledge for biodiversity research and conservation.

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October 2017 Riin received the Mobilitas returning researcher grant

[img_assist|nid=549|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=170|height=170]Riin Tamme received the Mobilitas Pluss returning researcher grant from the Estonian Science Foundation for her project 'Functional diversity-area relationship: disentangling the roles of dispersal and niche limitation in plant communities'. She started her project in October and will stay here for at least a year. Riin finished her PhD in our workgroup in 2015 and then spent two years in Australia doing a post-doc in the Big Ecology Lab with Angela Moles. Welcome back, Riin!

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October 2017 New paper about the global diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

[img_assist|nid=550|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=146]Meelis together with his colleagues from Estonia and abroad published recently a paper in New Phytologist, where they modelled the global diversity of symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. The availability of standardized global microbial diversity data, makes microorganisms promising models for investigating the role of regional and local factors in driving biodiversity. To differentiate between regional and local effects, they (1) estimated species pools (sets of potentially suitable taxa) for each site, which are expected to reflect regional processes, and (2) calculated community completeness, an index showing the fraction of the species pool present, which is expected to reflect local processes.

They found significant spatial variation, globally in species pool size, as well as in local and dark diversity (absent members of the species pool). Species pool size was larger close to areas containing tropical grasslands during the last glacial maximum, which are possible centres of diversification. Community completeness was greater in regions of high wilderness (remoteness from human disturbance). Local diversity was correlated with wilderness and current connectivity to mountain grasslands. Applying the species pool concept to symbiotic fungi facilitated a better understanding of how biodiversity can be jointly shaped by large-scale historical processes and recent human disturbance.

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September 2017 New doctoral students

We have three new PhD students starting their exciting research projects!

[img_assist|nid=547|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=150|height=150]Elisabeth Prangel finished her master's studies this year at the Department of Botany. Now, she will start her PhD project 'Importance of landscape and biodiversity on the provision of ecosystem services in grassland ecosystems' in our workgroup. Elisabeth's supervisor is Aveliina Helm.

[img_assist|nid=548|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=150|height=150]Miina Rikka received her master's degree last year at the Department of Botany and will now start her PhD studies in our workgroup. Her doctoral project is titled 'The relations between mire and freshwater bryophytes’ dark diversity with environment'. Miina's supervisor is Nele Ingerpuu.

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September 2017 Successful field work season

Although Estonian summers are notoriously short, our workgroup made the most of the field season.

[img_assist|nid=540|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=150|height=150]For the ‘Life to Alvars’ project, Aveliina, Tsipe, Marge and Ignacio studied cowslip (Primula veris) populations on Muhu and Saaremaa alvars. In addition, Liis, Aurèle and Elisabeth recorded species composition information on one of the restored grasslands in Undva to study species dynamics after restoration.

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September 2017 Liis received a PhD degree!

[img_assist|nid=538|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=173]On 15th September, Liis Kasari successfully defended her thesis “Plant diversity of semi-natural grasslands: drivers, current status and conservation challenges“ and was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Botany and Mycology. Liis was supervised by Aveliina Helm, and the official opponent during the defence was Professor Vigdis Vandvik from University of Bergen in Norway.

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August 2017 New information boards for alvar grasslands

[img_assist|nid=532|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=195]The ‘Life to Alvars’ project included 52 new information boards in Western Estonia to introduce the biodiversity and ecology of alvar grasslands. Aveliina and Krista Takkis (Estonian University of Life Sciences) prepared the texts for all the boards. Keep an eye out for the new information boards when visiting Western Estonia!

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August 2017 Aurèle received the Mobilitas post-doc grant

[img_assist|nid=472|title=|desc=|link=url|url=http://www.botany.ut.ee/macroecology/en/toussaint|align=left|width=150|height=150]We are happy to announce that Aurèle Toussaint received the Mobilitas Pluss mobility grant from Estonian Research Council for his project 'Macroecology of functional diversity: comparison of taxonomic groups'. Aurèle finished his PhD in 2016 in France and he has already been working in our workgroup for almost a year. He will start his new project in September, comparing functional diversity of plants, fungi, fish and other taxa at the global scale.

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July 2017 Aveliina participated in the IPBES meeting

[img_assist|nid=537|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=184]Aveliina participated in the third IPBES European and Central Asia Assessment authors meeting, 24-28 July. IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body, established by member States in 2012. Its mission is to strengthen knowledge foundations for better policy through science, for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, long-term human well-being and sustainable development.

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July 2017 XIX Botanical Congress

[img_assist|nid=527|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=195]The XIX Botanical Congress was held on 23-26 July in Shenzhen, South-China. This year, the congress was combined with the symposium of the International Association of Bryologists. The congress was the largest yet, there were almost 7000 participants from 109 countries. Our workgroup was represented by Ülle Reier and Nele Ingerpuu. The congress included almost 1500 talks and nearly 1000 posters. In addition, 1000 e-posters were presented, including the poster by Estonian researchers about the diaspore bank of mire bryophytes. The Congress announced the Shenzhen Declaration on Plant Sciences, which highlights the importance of uniting plant sciences and society to build a green, sustainable Earth. Ülle and Nele had also opportunities to visit the Fairy Lake Botanical garden, China National GeneBank and an exhibition of moss paintings by Chinese artists. The next Botanical Congress will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2023.

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July 2017 International Code of Nomenclature meeting in China

[img_assist|nid=526|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=195]The International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants can be modified only at the International Botanical Congress which takes place every six years. This time the session was held from 17 to 21 July in Shenzhen, China, and the Estonian delegate was Ülle Reier. The session had participants from nearly 30 countries, and more than 400 proposals for code amendment were submitted for consideration. The meeting agreed to set up an open-access online database for new names, where details about newly described species can be easily looked up. The nomenclature section also voted to include all of the rules that only apply to fungi into a special chapter, which will be developed further following the nomenclature sessions of the International Mycological Congresses.

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July 2017 Aveliina gave a keynote presentation at the Eurasian Grassland Conference

[img_assist|nid=533|title=|desc=(Photo: Lauma Gustina)|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=185]The 14th Eurasian Grassland Conference took place in Riga on 4-11 July 2017. This year the topic of the conference was ‘Semi-natural grasslands across borders’ and the participants had a great opportunity to visit a range of semi-natural grasslands in Latvia and Western Lithuania. Aveliina was invited as a keynote speaker and she gave a talk titled ‘Semi-natural grasslands in Estonia: importance, ecology and conservation’.

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June 2017 60th IAVS symposium in Sicily

[img_assist|nid=519|title=Liis´ poster was selected in Top 3!|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=146]
On the 20 – 24 June, many people of our workgroup participated in the annual symposium of International Association of Vegetation Science (IAVS) in Palermo, Italy. Auréle introduced his recent global scale research exploring the relationship between species richness of vascular plants and symbiotic fungi. Carlos had a memorable talk on how agricultural intensification influences plant functional trait variability. Liis and Kersti introduced their latest research on seed dispersal at the poster session, whereas Liis´ poster received also an honourable mention! Everyone had an opportunity to visit natural and cultural landscapes of Sicily during the traditional mid-symposium excursion.
The next symposium will take place in the USA, in the close vicinity of Yellowstone National Park.

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June 2017 Visit of foreign journalists

[img_assist|nid=535|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=195]In the beginning of summer several foreign journalists visited the restored alvar grassland sites in Saaremaa and Muhu. Aveliina, Sabrina, Maarja Öpik, Tanel Vahter, Mart Meriste and Annely Esko from the Environmental Board gave interviews about the current status and restoration success of these species-rich grasslands. This visit led to the coverage of our work in New Scientist and Finnish e-magazing Rapport.fi. Also in a German and Estonian radio shows.

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June 2017 European Commission LIFE+ programme monitors visited Estonian alvars

[img_assist|nid=539|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=195]In 2014 the large-scale alvar grassland restoration project 'LIFE to Alvars' was launched in western Estonia, financed by the European Commission LIFE+ Nature program and Estonian Environmental Investment Centre. Macroecology workgroup, in collaboration with experts from other fields, observe the effect of restoration on biodiversity. During previous summers they firstly quantified the pre-restoration environmental conditions of habitats and recorded the status of vascular plants, bryophytes, spiders, butterflies, bumblebees, birds and mycorrhiza. This summer Aveliina introduced the biodiversity monitoring methods and preliminary results to ca 40 European Commission LIFE+ programme monitors.

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June 2017 MSc thesis about ecosystem services in alvar grasslands

[img_assist|nid=520|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=195]
Our master student Elisabeth Prangel successfully defended her thesis ‘The provisioning of ecosystem services on open and successional alvar grasslands’. She found that open grasslands maintain more ecosystem services including pollinator diversity and recreational activities for humans, whereas juniper encroachment reduces diversity and aesthetical value. Elisabeth was supervised by Aveliina Helm.

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May 2017 Welcome to a new postdoctoral researcher Ignacio
[img_assist|nid=524|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=260]
We are happy to welcome Ignacio M. Hernández-Agramonte, a new postdoctoral researcher from Spain. Ignacio finished his PhD in Argentina studying biotic interactions between plants, fungi and herbivores. In our workgroup he will focus on the provisioning of ecosystem services in alvar grasslands.

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May 2017 New visiting PhD student from Brazil
[img_assist|nid=512|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=146]
Leonardo Magalhães, a PhD student from the Federal University of Pará in Brazil is visiting our workgroup for four months (April-July). He is working with Meelis to shed light on the factors determining the dark diversity of Amazonian floodplain forests.

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May 2017 Macroecology workgroup spring seminar
[img_assist|nid=511|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=148]
Our spring seminar took place on 11-12th May at Laelatu field station in Western Estonia. The theme of the seminar was "The role of history in the macroecology of biodiversity" and we heard many interesting talks focusing on palaeontology, evolutionary history and past landscape use. In addition to talks by our workgroup members, we had guest presentations by Oive Tinn, Triin Reitalu, Francesco de Bello and Sergey Znamenski. We also found time to go for a nice walk in the Laelatu wooded meadow that holds the small-scale species richness record.

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May 2017 Doctoral students learned about altitudinal vegetation zonation in Tenerife
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Eight doctoral students from Tallinn University, Tallinn University of Technology and University of Tartu participated in a field course on Tenerife, organized by Doctoral School of Earth Sciences and Ecology. During the week on this classical model island, they learned about altitudinal vegetation zonation and ecological and evolutional processes that form the vegetation patterns. In addition, students had the chance to get familiar with methods of modern ecology by collecting soil samples for Plant Ecology Laboratory. From our workgroup, Madli took part in the expedition.

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May 2017 New article about the effects of landscape composition on the genetic diversity of an endemic Rhinanthus osiliensis
[img_assist|nid=508|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=195|height=280]
Tsipe Aavik, Marge Thetloff, Evelyn Uuemaa, Tiina Talve and Tatjana Oja examined the effects of landscape composition on the genetic diversity of an endemic plant Rhinanthus osiliensis growing mainly in calcareous spring fens. The study revealed that all populations of this rare species have recently experienced a severe bottleneck, i.e. a strong decline in population size, most likely as a consequence of the loss of suitable habitats. Furthermore, a higher proportion of forests surrounding the populations caused a notable decrease in the genetic diversity within these populations. This demonstrates that in addition to the area and connectivity of suitable habitats, dispersal and pollen flow between populations is largely affected by the characteristics of the landscape matrix between suitable habitats.

Aavik, T., Talve, T., Thetloff, M., Uuemaa, E., Oja, T. (2017) Genetic consequences of landscape change for rare endemic plants – A case study of Rhinanthus osiliensis. Biological Conservation 210: 125-135.

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April 2017 New paper disentangles the relationship between dark diversity and dispersal limitation in Europe
[img_assist|nid=509|title=|desc=Positive values indicate dispersal limited sites.|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=217]
Kersti, Argo, Meelis and their German colleague Jens Kattge published recently a new paper in Journal of Biogeography exploring the relationship between dispersal ability of plants and dark diversity in Europe. Ca. 10 x 10 km vegetation grid cells across seven regions in Central and Northern Europe were used to compare dispersal traits of observed and dark diversity. The study shows that poor dispersal abilty (i.e. low seed production and short dispersal distance) restricts largely species dispersal to potentially suitable sites in Europe. Additionally, the results indicate that dispersal limitation decreases with increasing human activities, especially with agriculture, and the importance of dispersal limitation decreases with strong abiotic stress and biotic resistance.

Riibak, K., Ronk, A., Kattge, J., Pärtel, M. (2017) Dispersal limitation determines large-scale dark diversity in Central and Northern Europe. Journal of Biogeography, doi: 10.1111/jbi.13000.

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March 2017 Jon and Meelis developed a new method to predict species establishment and invasion
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Understanding which species establish in which habitats is fundamental to community ecology and to more applied pursuits, such as the restoration of degraded sites and the prevention of invasion by exotic species. Jon and Meelis developed a method that compares the characteristics of species across the regional species list, the site-specific species pool and locally observed species to predict which other species will be able to establish. As part of this method, we developed a new way to measure dissimilarity among species which we call functional neighborhood distances. Using this method in Estonian grasslands, we were able to predict approximately 50% of species establishment from seed, indicating that the new method may be a robust means to predict establishment and potentially invasion.

Bennett, J. A., & Pärtel, M. (2017). Predicting species establishment using absent species and functional neighborhoods Ecology and Evolution, doi:10.1002/ece3.2804.

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February 2017 We welcome a new postdoctoral researcher Sabrina
[img_assist|nid=503|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=150|height=158]
We are happy to welcome a new postdoctoral researcher Sabrina Träger from Germany who studies landscape genetic patterns of alvar grassland species, in particular Primula veris. Sabrina’s research is embedded in the large alvar grassland restoration project which focuses on possible changes of different biodiversity aspects before and after restoration of this unique ecosystem.

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Veebruar 2017 Aveliina visited Prof. Jens-Christian Svenning's lab

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January 2017 Madli visited Holger Kreft’s lab in Germany

[img_assist|nid=499|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=195]Our PhD student Madli spent three months in Göttingen, Germany, working by prof. Holger Kreft’s macroecology lab. During the visit, she improved her simulation models about island species richness development. In collaboration with prof Holger Kreft and other workgroup members, simulations were supplemented with last glacial maximum situation and geological dynamics. Scientific work in Germany was financed by the Archimedes Foundation.
Besides science, the lovely german town offered some other ways to spend time as well and visiting the Christmas market with lab members was definitely a must-do.

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January 2017 Biogeography conference across the Atlantic Ocean

[img_assist|nid=498|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=195]Meelis and Robert took a break from winter by travelling to Tucson, Arizona to attend the 8th Biennial Conference of the International Biogeography Society held January 9-13. In addition to hearing many interesting talks and meeting with several presenters, Meelis presented his latest research on local and regional drivers of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and Robert presented his latest ideas on quantifying species aggregation.

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January 2017 New paper revealing that species assembly patterns in grasslands depend on habitat history

[img_assist|nid=497|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=336]Liina Saar, Meelis Pärtel and Aveliina Helm together with their colleague Francesco de Bello from Czechia (University of South Bohemia) published a paper in Oecologia, where they demonstrated that grasslands with regular and long management history are assembled differently from abandoned grasslands and young developing grasslands, but these differences become evident only at ﬁner scales. They showed that long-term management of grasslands allows small-scale coexistence of many species with different life-history traits and habitat requirements, whereas in abandoned or young grasslands, species with more similar characteristics and requirements co-exist. Understanding the mechanisms that control species coexistence is essential for designing biodiversity conservation and restoration schemes and mitigating the effects of global change.

Saar, L., de Bello, F., Pärtel, M., Helm, A. (2017). Trait assembly in grasslands depends on habitat history and spatial scale. Oecologia, in press DOI 10.1007/s00442-017-3812-9.

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